


Elf

by fragilecapricornpanic



Series: Misc UA [1]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Everyone Is Alive, Everyone Needs A Hug, Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Mush, Gen, Good Parent Grace Hargreeves, Good Sibling Allison Hargreeves, Humor, Kid Fic, Mentioned Number Five | The Boy, One Shot, POV Alternating, Pre-Canon, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:14:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28353750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fragilecapricornpanic/pseuds/fragilecapricornpanic
Summary: Christmas Eve kid fic in the Hargreeves household, prior to Ben’s death. The teenagers sneak out to see a Christmas movie, and Vanya is surprised to be invited for once. One shot.
Relationships: The Hargreeves Family
Series: Misc UA [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2077887
Kudos: 35





	Elf

The five teenagers posed in their domino masks, with an extravagant Christmas tree as their background. It was hard to appear cheerful when they knew the tree was going to be taken down as soon as the magazine photographer left. One time the photoshoot had been of them making gingerbread houses, which had been thrown in the garbage that same afternoon. It was no surprise that Christmas wasn’t regarded as fun for the Hargreeves children.

When the photographer turned around to talk to their father - Klaus sneakily leaned to hit Diego on the back, since he knew Luther would naturally be blamed. It would be amazing if they started brawling in front of the press! “Klaus!” Allison quietly hissed, pushing him back over to beside Ben. It seemed like only Klaus had a sense of humor. Even Five had been more fun than these people, he loved causing a scene.

“I don’t want him!” Ben whispered, missing Five being there as a barrier between them. One and Two began to jostle with each other anyway, despite knowing it had been Klaus who’d hit Diego. They never needed a reasonable justification to fight each other. Ben anxiously tapped Allison on the shoulder, wanting her to rumor them into behaving. Dad would punish them all if they showed him up in front of the photographer, regardless of Allison’s power being used as damage control. Many members of the press had been rumored into forgetting similar incidents.

Life would be so different if it were the girls who outnumbered the boys, Allison wished that was reality. “I heard a ru-“ the photographer swivelled to face them again, so Allison quickly closed her mouth. Thankfully the domino masks covered up Luther and Diego’s white eyes. She was always reprimanded when a member of the public saw her using her power for trivial matters. Dad didn’t like her using it on her siblings, period. He didn’t appreciate how annoying it was to have so many brothers. They’d been so rambunctious one year that the tree had been knocked over, dad had given them extra training for six whole months. He’d also grounded them for a year, but they were grounded every day anyway. 

“I’d like one with The Rumor in the front.” the photographer ordered, manhandling Allison into position. She had no complaints though, Allison adored being the literal center of attention. As the camera flashed, Allison glanced over to Vanya. She was depressively watching them from the staircase, as she did every time they had a photoshoot within the house. It made Allison feel guilty to see her all alone... things could’ve been so different had she been born like them. 

—

After Five went missing, sneaking out had become less regular. That was mostly because his power had made it much easier to do, plus his room had access to the fire escape. It had felt wrong to continue using that window without him, which had made escaping harder. “Are you sure the cameras in our rooms aren’t on?” Ben whispered, fretting about being caught red handed. God only knows what dad would do to punish them. What if he got rid of their weekly half hour of recreational time?!

“Ask him, he’s b-basically dad.” Diego tipped his head in the direction of Luther, who always seemed torn between joining them, or tattling on them. Allison diplomatically rumored away an impending argument, gesturing for them to follow her. As they skulked down the hallway, Allison paused outside of Vanya’s room. She was never usually invited. That should change.

The boys all ignored Allison’s stalling and happily walked past Vanya’s room. “Can we bring Vanya?” Allison requested, which made all of her brothers give her incredulous expressions. It seemed like the answer would be a unified no.

“You know it’s not safe, she’s ordina-“ Allison decided she didn’t care what they thought, and rumored them into agreeing. She gently knocked on their sister’s door, unsure if she was asleep yet. Hopefully she wasn’t, Allison would be sad to go without Vanya.

Nobody ever knocked on Vanya’s door anymore, not since Five left. Occasionally Ben would come to read with her, but he was often with Klaus these days. Vanya tentatively opened her door, expecting to find mom or Pogo. She almost flinched when she saw all of her remaining siblings crowded around. “Do you wanna go see Elf?” Allison asked, which only made Vanya more confused. Elves weren’t real, they were imaginary.

“It’s a movie.” Ben elaborated, seeing how thoroughly bewildered Vanya was. “About an elf.” Klaus added on, as if that could possibly need clarifying. Luther pulled him away from Vanya’s doorway, like a dog on a leash. 

Now that Vanya knew it was a movie, she was still just as confused. Why would they invite her? “Please, I want you to come. _We_ want you to come.” Allison kindly murmured, looking to the others to prompt them into agreeing. They all nodded, which didn’t mean anything. Allison could make anyone agree to anything. If Allison wanted Vanya there though, that meant a lot. Vanya only had one sister amongst all of these brothers. Allison’s opinion was important to her. 

—

Once they’d successfully gotten outside, they’d split into their usual groups. This time Allison ditched Luther to walk with Vanya, which put him with the other boys. Including Diego, who was considering joining the girls instead of being near to Number One. “What did you gu-guys ask mom for?” Diego asked the others, intentionally not looking at Luther. They didn’t get any gifts at Christmas until mom came into their lives. They hadn’t even known what Christmas was. Every year from then on, they got one present each. They were never wrapped though.

“Money.” Klaus answered, since mom wouldn’t agree to buying him drugs. He’d tried.

“A first edition book.”

“We have a library at home, m-moron.” 

“Not of first editions.” Ben scoffed, looking forward to receiving his gift. The books in their library were incredibly boring and mostly academic. All three of his brothers laughed at him. “Well what did you ask for?” Ben threw the question back to Diego, expecting the answer to be something revolving around sharp objects.

“Uh, sneakers.” Diego hurriedly lied, bashful that he’d asked for an engraved knife. He wasn’t obsessed with knives, he just liked them... “Are you ge-getting a pair of balls for Christmas?” Diego taunted Luther, who looked like a teacher on a field trip because of the height difference. 

That goading was immature, and Luther chose to ignore it. “I’m not getting anything, dad doesn’t like gifts.” Luther replied, proud to respect their father’s disliking for Christmas. He felt guilty enough for sneaking out to see Elf, a gift would be a step too far out of line. Just because mom could talk dad into allowing presents, didn’t mean Luther wanted to encourage it.

Both Allison and Vanya looked over their shoulders at the boys when they began to bicker about dad. “I wish Five was still here to yell at them.” Allison tittered, turning back to Vanya. She looked gloomy at the mention of Five, which made a knot twist in Allison’s stomach. They’d been close, it was dumb of her to bring him up. Despite wanting to have a relationship with Vanya, Allison could never say the right thing. “I’m glad you came with us.” Allison excitedly bounced on her heel, making Vanya diffidently grin.

—

Filing out of the theatre, Allison and Vanya couldn’t stop giggling. A lot of the movie had been confusing for them all, since they didn’t know a thing about Christmas or ordinary life. It was still hilarious though. Buddy’s elf outfit made their own uniforms look less stupid. Once in the foyer, Luther did his usual head count to make sure they were all safe and accounted for. Like usual, Klaus had apparently wandered off.

All of them instantly looked to Diego, as if he was Klaus’ keeper. “Why is it always me?! _He’s_ N-Nu-Number One!” Diego passed the blame to Luther, which was the only time Diego ever liked being ranked below him. 

“Diego!” Allison yelped, annoyed that he’d once again let Klaus leave. It was an unwritten rule that Klaus was his responsibility, for whatever reason. “Fine. I’ll f-find him, don’t rumor me.” Diego huffed, storming off to locate their brother. Half the time, the implied threat of a rumor was just as efficient as a rumor itself. That was the beauty of it all. Ben was ridiculously reading a book whilst they waited, as if they hadn’t just seen a movie. It was like he took a book everywhere he went.

—

Home at last, the teenagers skulked through the halls to get back to their rooms. The problem with living in a mansion was it took so long to sneak around. “Why doesn’t this place have an elevator?” Luther whispered, struggling to _quietly_ drag a drunken Klaus up the many stairs. It was like he wanted to break a bone again. At least Allison had rumored him into shutting up for twenty minutes, if only she’d agree to doing that permanently.

“It does.” Vanya murmured without meaning to, which caused all of her siblings to pause and look at her with shocked scepticism. “I- I think there’s an elevator, I don’t know.” Vanya self-consciously shrugged, unsure where that reply even came from. It just popped out. _Was_ there an elevator? Having everyone pay attention to her was making her blush, and not in the coy and endearing way that Allison blushed when she was enjoying being noticed. 

The others glanced at one another, equally as puzzled. They’d certainly never noticed an elevator. Perhaps Vanya knew about it because of her duties in assisting dad. It did ring a faint bell for Allison, though she wasn’t sure why. “Do you wanna sneak out with us again?” Allison asked with a grin, linking Vanya’s arm as they neared their rooms. Vanya froze for a moment, surprised by Allison not hating her.

“She’s a liability.” Diego grumbled under his breath, having spent all evening worried something would happen to Vanya. “Night.” Diego rushed off to his room before Allison could punish him for that comment. Angry rumors were the worst. He still didn’t know how he was going to explain not having new sneakers in the morning. Mom would cover for him, she’d do anything for him.

Luther pushed Klaus into his room as soon as they got within close distance. The scrawling on Klaus’ walls got weirder every day. “Merry Christmas, Allison.” Luther smiled at her like a lovesick puppy, planning on buying her a necklace as soon as he could afford it. He should’ve thrown aside his morals and asked mom for money for Christmas... “Night Vanya, Ben.” Luther mumbled, shuffling off into his room, almost banging his head on the doorframe.

“Night, guys. Merry Christmas.” Ben whispered, giving both sisters quick hugs before hurrying off to his warm and cozy bed. It wasn’t long now until he had his first edition book in his hands! He doubted Diego would be receiving new shoes in the morning... unless they were made from knives.

Allison was still blushed from seeing Luther’s smile, which she hoped wasn’t clear to Vanya. That would be embarrassing. “I hope you come with us again, sis.” Allison lovingly murmured, pulling Vanya in for a hug of their own. The silence she received wasn’t unexpected, Vanya was always lost for words when people said nice things to her. “Merry Chri-“ Allison cut herself off to sprint into Klaus’ room when she began to smell smoke. The giggling was always a telltale sign that the fire was anything but accidental.

“Merry Christmas...” Vanya replied to the empty hallway, feeling unbelievably overwhelmed by being involved for once. It would probably never happen again. She briefly entered her room to put on her pajamas, and then quietly snuck off to make Five his favorite sandwich. He had to come back one day.


End file.
